It’s quite a setting for a meal, but the food at the Chautauqua Dining Hall has been so-so, at best, for quite awhile. New management, and a facelift, might change things. (Cyrus McCrimmon)

The restaurant setting may be the best in Colorado, and it’s got to rank up there nationwide. The thumbnail sketch: 19th century, grand building, resplendent with hardwood floors, windows galore, wood-burning fireplace, and a kind of charm that comes only with age; wrap-around porch; at the base of Boulder’s Flatirons, and in the midst of Chautauqua Park, a charming spectacle of grass, stone buildings, old trees, cottages, and meadow leading up to mountains.

But the Dining Hall at Chautauqua was not a destination for a meal. Even a quick lunch was dicey – the last time I had a burger at the Dining Hall, I considered fishing the puck of ground beef from between the styrofoam-like buns and using it as a Frisbee in the park. In short, dining and the Dining Hall really did not go together. The food had “college cafeteria” plastered all over it, and so did the waitstaff. A pity, given the truly spectacular setting.

He’s been selling them in Boulder coffeeshops for awhile, but Eric Guthrie, the owner of Dizzy’s Donuts, finally has a storefront. And there was much rejoicing. (Douglas Brown)

Yep, that’s bacon draped across the donut in the photo, and the deep-fried ring of delight is glazed with maple. So it’s like eating pancakes and bacon. And it’s awfully good.

Boulder had been donut-shop-bereft for far too long – since somewhere in the mid-2000s. For the past year, coffeeshops have carried Dizzy’s Donuts, but there wasn’t a shop. Just a guy and a fryer and some killer recipes. But now Eric Guthrie – the classically-trained chef with those recipes – has a shop, in East Boulder, near Boulder Community Hospital (convenient!).

And we Boulderites are so very happy.

Outsiders caricature us as soy-milk-sipping effetes, about as likely to haul home a box of donuts as we are to down a few quarts of Colt 45 before heading off to the paintball tournament. But that’s so wrong. We prefer hemp milk!

And it appears we like donuts. When I stopped by Guthrie’s shop before 9 a.m. Saturday, he said his only complaint is “I can’t make enough donuts.”

The market hired Jen Bush, who has worked with Dave Query’s Big Red F restaurant empire for a decade, as its new pastry chef. Bush will oversee the market’s new bakehouse and creamery, in a space adjacent to the market.

She’s a heckuva’ baker.

The bakehouse and creamery will sell housemade ice cream, cakes and pastries.

Looking for some Buffs tailgate action beyond the parking lot? West End Tavern in Boulder has food and drink deals - and a shuttle.

I’ve never done it, but the idea, at least, sounds pretty cool to me. You hang out in a parking lot before a football game. You cook over grills. You drink beer. You eat and sip with friends. Tailgating seems like an authentic, organic American creation, something that didn’t spring from a series of meetings in a Chicago suburb involving many, many senior VPs of brand development.

So I hesitate to plug the West End Tavern’s leveraging of the tailgating tradition: Come to our restaurant and bar. Eat, drink and be merry. Then hop on a shuttle to the game, and take it back afterwards.

But here’s the deal. The West End is an awfully cozy space – one of the cheeriest in Boulder. The shuttle is a great idea. And not everybody has the wherewithal to get to the Boulder parking lot early, to prep the food and set up the grills and get it going. So in lieu of standing in the atmospheric fall parking lot, the West End Tavern’s invitation is a good one.

We recently got an interesting email from Lonely Planet, the folks who put out off-the-beaten-path guidebooks.

They had compiled a list of 20 classic regional sandwiches in honor of National Sandwich Month, which we’re in. (You can check out the full list by clicking here.) You’re probably familiar with many of their choices: muffulettas and po’boys from New Orleans, lobster rolls from New England, Italian beef from Chicago. Others we had heard of but not encountered (Louisville, Ky.’s “hot brown”) or hadn’t heard of period (the “Horseshoe” from Springfield, Ill. and environs.

There was one more in the latter category: The Denver sandwich. The concept was basic enough: It’s a Denver omelet – you know, an omelet studded with diced ham, onions and green peppers – cooked and enfolded in two slices of toasted bread.

Now, any pizza fan will tell you that a slice of leftover pie — or two — makes for a fine breakfast. It’s best the day after a hot box has arrived in the house, because beyond that, it starts drying out in the fridge. But an egg-based breakfast pizza, while not a new invention, is still novel enough to be worth a look.

The Mellow Mushroom offers a trio of egg-driven ‘zas, including a “Denver” version inspired by the Mile High City’s namesake omelet, loaded with eggs, ham, cheddar, green peppers and onions.

Front Range-native Dustin Gagna, 33, who grew up in Westminster, cooks for the team and a handful of others in the drag-racing circuit. His kitchen is eight feet wide and 13 feet long. He buys the food, preps it, cooks it, serves it – often for more than 150 people. He even does the dishes.

Denver Cupcake Truck: Denver’s first cupcake truck was also the first social media-driven one, says Denon Moore, Cake Crumbs owner. The truck itself is pretty old though, as the bakery touts a 1969 Ford Vanette.

Foundations: Moore wanted to market Cake Crumbs to Denver audiences, and have her husband get involved in the family business. So they launched the Denver Cupcake Truck in April of 2010.

Now serving: Good ol’ fashioned American cupcakes. “People love to treat themselves to a small dessert,” Moore said. “The cupcake is great for many as it’s a small sacrifice, not a huge commitment — a small guilty pleasure.”